Sweaty Otter 24Hr AR

First of all, MANY, MANY thanks to Jeff Swafford, Dary, Michelle (Rich) and others who made this race possible for me through your support, truck, help with kids, etc. Thank you!!!

My teammate, Rich Zak, and I headed up for the Northern Unit of Kettle Moraine. The trip took less time than we thought so after checking in with the race director we ran back to a McDonald's we had driven past and grabbed some hot breakfast. This would be the last hot food for more than 24 hours and we took our time savoring our hot cakes and eggs. We also poured over the maps we had picked up at the registration and started making preliminary routes and decisions that would guide us during the race.

Back at the Race HQ we set up for the next 24+ hours.




We are still fairly new to racing 'together' as this was only our third race as a team. We are searching for a better name than our current one which is Team Far Side. The name was passed on from others Rich has raced with and neither of us have found any significance to it.
So if you have any suggestions for an Adventure Racing team name feel free to leave a comment. The race was looking to be pretty straightforward with nothing too technical or difficult other than the sheer number of miles it would encompass. At our pre-race meeting we found out that all teams would start the race with a 3 mile trail run before getting the next set of maps and directions. We were so blessed not to have to carry our packs!!



The trail run was fun and even though Rich has bad knees we kept up a 9 min/mile pace. We got on our bikes and headed to the first section.. The rest of the race is a blur...

Actually, it was great. The only negative side to the race was my bike. It is so heavy and there were lots of sloping hills and after a trip through a mud pit on a single track my rear derailleur stopped shifting correctly and it was all uphill from there. Rich, bless his heart, pushed me most of the bike sections! We got to the paddling section around 11pm and spent four hours on the water while the temperature dropped into the 40's.
It was a cold night and I was down to my last dry article so we fashioned pants out of my emergency blankent and kept on going. There is something about being on a quest that thrills and envigorates me that I will have to think about some more and try to capture those thoughts better.